INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF MULTIDISCIPLINARY ADVANCED RESEARCH TRENDS ISSN : 2349-7408 VOLUME 1, ISSUE 1, AUGUST 2014
AN OVERVIEW OF THE MUSLIM ORIENTED TV SERIALS OF INDIA
Zahoor Hussain Bhat Sub-editor (Trainee) at United News of India Karipora, District: Budgam Jammu and Kashmir (Kashmir)
Abstract India has more than 20 crore Muslim population who has been maintaining cordial relationship with all other communities of the country since centuries. They contribute to the country in every sphere of life. Providentially Indian people of different communities take keen interest in knowing their way of living, their cultures and history. This is evident through the fact that TV serials based on the Muslim background have remained highly popular among viewers. During the past three decades, numbers of TV serials have been made on Muslims background and after a short interval of disinclination during the first decade of the 21st century; the trend has got revived as is evident through the success of soap operas like “Qubool Hai”, “Jodha Akbar” and “Beintehaa”. The main objective of this paper is to give an overview about the TV serials that have been set on Muslim background so far. This will include account on the story content, success stories and other related matters.
Keywords: Television, Muslim Serials, India, Popularity, Viewers
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Introduction India is a multi-religious, multi-lingual and multi-cultural country. It is a second populous country of the world with a share of 17.4 of the world population. It has a great history of communal harmony. The concept of religious harmony has deep roots in its cultures. A country credited with being custodian of countless and centuries old cultures. Indian cultures vary from place to place. Dissimilarity in demography, geography, history, religion and languages separates one culture from the other. According to the 2001 census, 80.5% of the population of India practice Hinduism. Islam (13.8%), Christianity (2.4%), Sikhism (1.9%), Buddhism (1.5%) and Jainism (0.4%) are the other major religions followed by the people of India. There are hundreds of languages spoken in India. The People belonging to different cultures speak different languages. However, on the basis of speakers in numbers, Hindi and English have been designated as the official languages of the country. According to the census of 2001, about 41 percent of the Indian population speaks the Hindi language. Some regional languages also have a good number of speakers. Census of 2001 discloses that Bengali is spoken by 8.11% (83 million) of the Indian population. Similarly Telegu by 7.19%, Marathi by 6.99%, Tamil by 5.19%, Urdu by 5.01%, Gujarati by 4.48%, Kannada by 3.69%, Malayalam by 3.21%. The other regional languages too have a good number of speakers. Most of the people who are the native speakers of different regional languages, understand the official languages of the country in addition. Those who speaking Urdu do understand Hindi as well and vice versa.
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The constitution of India declares India a secular and a democratic country. This country upholds this honour in letter and spirit. History bears witness to the fact that this country warmly welcomed the people of different religions and civilizations in the past and this development continues in present as well. Before the arrival of Britishers to this country, its land attracted a number of Muslim rulers of different countries to settle down here. It is said that Muslim rulers ruled this country for more than one thousand years. They treated all the people equally. There was no discrimination on the basis of religion during their rule. After the fall of the Mughal Empire, when India ha completely gone into the hands of Britishers, people from all religions unitedly launched a freedom movement. Muslims played an important role in the freedom struggle. Great Muslim personalities like Tipu Sultan, Hyder Ali, Bahadur Shah Zafar, Abdul Kalam Azad, Mohammad Ali Jouhar, Hasrat Mohani and others fought enthusiastically against the occupying forces. In addition Urdu journalism played a vital role in freedom struggle. The news reports, articles, features and editorials that would appear in Urdu newspapers had encouraged Indians to rise against the occupants. Delhi Urdu Akhbar played an exceptional role in this regard. Even its editor Moulvi Mohammad Baqir is the first journalist who was martyred by the British army. These facts make it obvious that Muslims are an integral part of Indian civilization.
The main aim behind the above discussion was to shed some light on the religious, lingual and the cultural diversity of the country (India). No doubt in India followers of many religions observe their religious festivals together which help in
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strengthening of ‘interfaith relations’. Currently, the hostility that is being witnessed within the world is attributable to the explanation that countries have developed ‘misunderstandings’ against one another. Ironically, in the present day, gap between practices of different religions worldwide is getting widened and to some extent misconceptions against each other prevail in India. In this 21st century, mass media is a most powerful tool which if properly used could easily do away with this ‘gap’ and ‘misconceptions’. In fact it is mass media who introduce the practitioners of one religion to the practitioners of the other religion. It can be best used to inform people about different cultures and religions. Among different forms of mass media, television is credited with being most preferred means of communication. It has a capacity to cater the information and entertainment needs of both the illiterates and literates. There are now exclusive TV channels for entertainment and information (news). Entertainment channels have a great potential of eradicating misconceptions prevailing in the country between different religions. The number of viewers of TV serials (soap operas) is escalating with each passing day. If the content of these soap operas is developed with an intention of doing away with the misconceptions among different sections of the society and bridging the gaps between followers of different faiths then it would be the most impact factor of positive changes. This is not a new idea. Even the content of India’s first soap opera “Hum Log” was developed keeping in mind a special cause. “Hum Log” a soap opera based on 154 episodes was telecasted from July 7, 1984 to September 17, 1985 on Doordarshan. The main aim behind the telecast of the serial was to entertain and side by side make
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people aware of some necessary issues. The content of “Hum Log” had incorporated issues ranging from family planning to the deliverance of pro-development messages. The idea behind using soap opera “Hum Log” for addressing some social issues was not an innovative but the same was adopted from soap operas made in Mexico and other third world countries. In Mexico and other third world countries the making of pro-development and pro- social began in 70’s. The pro-development soaps operas in Mexico succeeded to a great extent in educating people about their social problems. This clearly indicates that TV serials (soap operas) could best be used to entertain and educate people about different cultures and religions. Educate the audience about the background and the way the followers of these cultures and religions are living. Furthermore, it could play a role of ‘revolutionist’ as far as eradication of the social evils from the society is concerned. But it is possible only if the content of TV serials is developed keeping the motto in mind. I don’t say that content should be developed entirely ‘social reformer’ centred and entertainment should be given secondary priority. Soap operas are basically meant for entertainment and developers (writers) of the content should keep that. But I say a mixture of entertainment and messages on social issues would fetch two goals at a same glance.
An overview During 8th and 9th decade of the 20th century many Muslim oriented TV serials were aired on television and were highly popular. According to an Indian Express report during that period be it the story of Heena (Simone Singh), who struggles
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through an unhappy marriage or be it Juhi Parmar in the title role of Shaheen, a serial that dealt with extra-marital affairs, and the iconic Doordarshan show Gul Gulshan Gulfam, which revolved around a Kashmiri family’s houseboat business being affected by the insurgency. They were all popular among viewers. And the reason for their popularity was the attractive portrayal of social life and particularly the main reason of fame was their depiction of Muslim families and their culture. In turn viewers whole-heartedly watched, liked and applauded them. But during the first decade of the 21st century a sudden break in the making of Muslim oriented serials was observed. In fact throughout the first decade of the 21st century, TV serial producers seemed to be reluctant about the stories based on Muslim background and had been entirely a decade dominated by ‘Saas Bahu’ infighting. May be the producers had approached channels with the stories portraying the Muslim culture and standard of living but channels had been unwilling in airing them. It is evident from the Indian Express report in which Mrinal Jha, creative producer of Muslim oriented TV serial ‘Qubool Hai’ has been quoted as having said that ‘they had approached many other channels before Zee TV but were told that the country at this point of time was not ready for a show with Muslim backdrop.’ The history about the making of TV serials in India is not too old. Before the making of TV serials, cinema has been quite dominant in India. In fact the portrayal of Muslim culture in India cinema was highly preferred. Jasbir Jain writes in the book edited by him ‘Muslim Culture in Indian Cinema’: ‘During the decade of the 1940s and thereafter, most of the movies were set on Muslim culture. Urdu Ghazals would express the feelings of
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ones heart. Most of the people were reading, speaking and understanding Urdu language. Script and dialogue writers from Agha Hashar Kashmiri to Rajinder Singh Bedi, Saadat Hassan Manto and Khwaja Ahmad Abbas were all Urdu knowing people. Lyricist like Sahir Ludhianvi and Kaifi Azmi, music directors like Ghulam Haider and Naushad Ali, singers like Suraiya, Noor Jahan, Mohammed Rafi and Talat Mahmood were also Urdu knowing people. Directors like A. R. Kardar, Mehboob and Kamal Amrohi grew up in Muslim culture.’ It is believed that making of the Muslim oriented TV serials resulted from the growing popularity of Hindi movies portraying Muslim cultures and their standard of living. The movies like Mere Mehboob (1963) and Bahu Begum (1967) are entirely Muslim oriented. If we look at the Hindi movie Coolie, the most popular movie of 1980s, was also Muslim oriented and its song "Mubarak Ho Tumko Haj Ka Mahina" had remained highly admired. During 1980s few other movies portrayed Muslim culture and later the movement was carried forward by TV serials in 1990s. Although, during the first decade of the 21st century, a sudden break in the telecast of Muslim oriented serials raised a question mark about the reluctance of the stakeholders. However, Muslim oriented TV serial made a great comeback in the second century of the 21st Century and the serials like “Qubool Hai”, “Jodha Akbar” and “Beintehaa” remained highly popular among viewers. The serials of 80s and 90s, like Heena, Gul Gulshan Gulfaam, Shaheen, Khwaish, The Sword of Tipu Sultan, Phir Wahi Talash, Farman, Mirza Ghalib and the others were too rich as far as the content is concerned. Through these serials the actual social life, social issues and the feats of great
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Muslim personalities were portrayed. An attempt has been made here to present a key review of some Muslim oriented TV serials.
Heena TV serial ‘Heena’ was aired on Sony Entertainment Television in five seasons from 1998 to 2003. A serial directed by Talat Jani and created by Rajeev Tandon. The role of the protagonist ‘Heena’ was played by Simone Singh which brought her name and fame in the Television Industry and was afterwards known by the name of ‘Heena’ by millions of TV viewers. The opening theme song of the serial, in fact a Ghazal, was sung by Jagjit Singh and the lyrics were written by Kaifi Azmi. The story of the serial revolves around a Muslim woman named ‘Heena’ and about the troubles and trials she faces throughout her life. Heena gets married to a person named Sameer who reveals to her on the very first day of the marriage that he loves another woman named ‘Ruby’. Later their dejected marriage ends in separation. After their separation, Heena marries to Akram who happens to be a friend of Sameer. When the duo started living a new life, Ruby enters into the life of Akram as his second wife, therefore, makes the life of Heena hell again. Again Heena chooses separation. Heartbroken Heena after suffering massive setbacks pledges to live a normal life. However, bad luck does not let her live a normal life. Pregnant Heena gives birth to twins. But her one child gets kidnapped. In order to calm down Heena from getting downhearted, her father lies to her, convincing her that one of the children was born dead. Afterwards she comes to know that her one child was kidnapped and after an untiring struggle
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she gets her child back and the latter again marries to Sameer and both start living a happy life.
Gul Gulshan Gulfaam TV serial ‘Gul Gulshan Gulfaam’ was based on a Kashmiri Muslim family. It was aired by government owned Doordarshan on its DD National Channel, in the year 1991, an only TV Channel of the time and ran for 45 episodes. The serial was directed by Ved Rahi, produced by Prem Krishen and written by Pran Kishore. Almost 18 years after the telecast of the serial, Pran Kishore published a full-fledged novel entitled “Gul Gulshan Gulfaam”. Like TV serial, the novel was also appreciated by the readers. Nonetheless, the serial proved to be the first serial portraying Kashmiri Muslim family and Kashmiri culture. This serial received nationwide admiration by the viewers. After one decade the same serial was re-aired by Sahara TV in the year 2002. The award winning music for the serial was given by noted Kashmiri music composer Krishan Langoo. The story of the serial tells about a Kashmiri middle class family who owns three houseboats named ‘Gul’, ‘Gulshan’ and ‘Gulfaam’. The family is solely dependent on these houseboats as far as family expenses are concerned. However, their business gets a big jolt when insurgency starts in Kashmir resulting decline in the number of tourists visiting the place. The serial tells about the suffering of the family due to the start of the insurgency in the Valley. Overall, the serial pictures the negative effects of insurgency on people’s life. The most outdoor part of the serial was shot in Srinagar. Kunal Khemu, a native of Srinagar, started his acting career with serial.
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Shaheen TV serial ‘Shaheen’ was aired by Sony Entertainment Television. This serial was produced by Ajay Shah under the banner of Arvishi Cine Vision ‘Production House’ and was directed by Pravesh Bhardwaj. Juhi Parmar was portrayed as ‘Shaheen’ in the serial. The story of the serial revolves around a Muslim woman named Shaheen. This TV serial projects the present day standard of living of Nawabs. Underlines the differences between two cultures of Urban Mumbai and that of Traditional Lucknow. And particularly informs about those girls that are being forced to tie knot without considering their will, who therefore, bear the burnt after marriage. Although Shaheen wants to get further education, however, gives up study after she is knotted to a Lucknow based Nawab named Junaid by her father who was very much keen in this relation. Nawab Junaid is much older than Shaheen. But that is no issue for her. When Shaheen reaches to Lucknow, she comes to know that Nawab Junaid has already a son through her departed wife Nadira. Now she feels deceived by her own father. She argues why her father conceals all this from her. After some time she notices undying love in Junaid for his dead wife Nadira. She was undecided whether to leave or stay. However gathers coverage later on and decides to pursue further studies in Lucknow. She joins college where she falls in love with a poet named ‘Rafee’.
Khwaish TV serial ‘Khwaish’ entertained the people of both India and Pakistan when it was aired. This serial was aired by ‘Sony Entertainment Television’ in India from July 16, 2007 to April
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24, 2008 and by ‘ARY Digital’ in Pakistan. ‘Sony Entertainment Television’ telecasted it from Monday to Thursday at 7:30 pm. ‘ARY Digital’ too telecasted it from Monday to Thursday, but, at 9:30 pm. It was later aired by Afghanistan based Television channel ‘Ariana’. The serial was directed by Talat Jani, Muzzamil Desai, Vijay Saini & Swapnil Shahane and produced by Ekta Kapoor & Shobha Kapoor. It is said that Ekta Kapoor had a desire to make a TV serial based on Muslim culture and therefore the formation of ‘Khwaish’ can be considered as the accomplishment of her wish. However, she was more excited when this serial was telecasted in Pakistan and became a first Indian TV serial to be lawfully aired there. The story of ‘Khwaish’ was written by Harsha, Ved Raj, Koel Choudhary & Vinod Sharma. Screenplay of the serial was written by Pooja Shrivastva & Divyanna Khanna. The serial was created by Balaji Telefilms Nivedita Basu. The story of the serial is based on a Muslim lady named ‘Afreen Hussain Khan’ (Priya Bathija) who resides in Dubai with her family. She is a very simple girl with a simple dream of getting married to a respectable person who could ensure her happy future life. Luckily her dream comes to true and Afreen gets married into a rich and a highly regarded family. She gets a good-looking and a caring husband. But her happy life does not last for long as her husband Kabir Khan (Sumeet Sachdev) dies in a road accident. Circumstances lead her to marry his brother-in-law named Azaan Khan (Yasir Shah). However their relation soon gets engulfed by hostilities and misunderstandings against each other which badly affect their relation. But with the passage of time, they start feeling love for
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each other. One day they see a person who resembles with Kabir and thereafter, the story takes exciting turns.
The Sword of Tipu Sultan ‘The Sword of Tipu Sultan’ is a historical drama. It was aired by DD National (a government owned TV channel) in the year 1990- 91. Later it was re-telecasted by ‘Star Plus’ in the year 2001 on Sundays at 8 am. This drama is based on the Bhagwan S Gidwani’s best selling novel ‘The Sword of Tipu Sultan’ and portrays the life and times of great the king of Mysore ‘Tipu Sultan’. 60 episodes of the series were shown. Viewers had greatly admired this historical drama and even viewers abroad had loved it. The reason for their appreciation was the finest display of Tipu Sultan’s empire of Mysore and standard of living of its people. The translated form of the episodes was shown in various languages like Bengali, Tamil and Malayalam. Film producer and director Sanjay Khan produced this historical drama under the banner of ‘Numero Uno International’ production house. First 20 episodes were directed by Sanjay Khan’s elder brother Akbar Khan. However, the rest of the episodes were directed by Sanjay Khan who also played an imperative role of ‘Tipu Sultan. Sanjay Khan was awarded with the honour of Gem of India Award for the making of this historical drama. The music for the drama series was composed by legendary musician ‘Naushad Ali’. This drama presents a summary of ‘Tipu Sultan’ who is considered as one of the courageous kings of Indian history. It puts in picture an account of his loyalty towards his territory, the wars he fought and let viewers know about all those who revered and let him down.
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Phir Wahi Talash TV serial ‘Phir Wahi Talash’ was telecasted on DD National during 1989-90 on Sundays. It was directed by well-known film director Lekh Tandon and won the President's Best Serial of the year award. The serial was greatly appreciated and liked by viewers. The presence of Urdu Ghazals in the serial had received a great admiration from viewers. Especially the title song “Kabhi haadson ki dagar mile kabhi mushkilon ka saffar mile, yeh charrag hain meri raah ke mujhay manzilon ki talaash hai mujhay manzilon ki talaash hai” and Ghazals like “mere hum safar mere saath tum sabhi mausamon main raha karo…..” and others had deeply amused viewers. It is said that the title song was sung by Chandan Das and music was given by renowned music composer Anil Biswas. Dr. Ashwini Kumar, Poonam Rehani and Neelima Azim had played leading roles in the serial. The story of the serial is about a boy who comes to metro from a small town where he falls in love with a girl who comes from a well-off family.
Farman TV serial ‘Farman’ was directed by Lekh Tandon and produced by Gul Anand. It was aired by Doordarshan in early 90’s. It was a popular serial of that time. This serial is based on the top selling Urdu Novel of Rafia Manzoorul Ameen entitled “Alampanah” which enlightens the life of Hyderabadi Nawabs. The lyrics of the Ghazal ‘Yaad’ in the serial were written by Sulaiman Khateeb. The artists who played their roles in the serial were Kanwaljit Singh (as Aazar Nawab), Deepika Deshpande (Aiman), Raja Bundela, Navin Nishchol, Vinita Malik, Kalpana Iyer and Neha
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Sharad. Deepika Deshpande was awarded with the honour of ‘Most Promising Newcomer’ for this serial.
Mirza Ghalib ‘Mirza Ghalib’ is a television drama series based on the life and literary contribution of the great Urdu and Persian poet ‘Mirza Asadullah Baig Khan’. This series was written and produced by another prominent poet Gulzar. ‘Mirza Ghlaib’ a biographical series was aired on Doordarshan’s DD National Channel in the year 1988 in a single season. Famous Indian film actor and director Naseeruddin Shah played an important role of Mirza Ghalib in the drama, on the other hand, Tanvi Azmi played of Umrao Begum and Neena Gupta of Nawab Jaan. Urdu Ghazals sung and composed by Jagjit Singh and Chitra Singh were also incorporated into the series. Ghazal written by Mirza Ghalib like Dil-e-Nadaan Tujhe Hua Kya Hai….., Kabse Hoon Kya Bataaoon….., Unke Dekhe Se Jo Aa Jaati Hai….., Tere Vaade Par Jiye Hum (Ye Na Thi Humari Qismat) ….., Zulmat-Kade Mein Mere….., Hazaaron Khvaahishen Aisii….., Aah Ko chaahiye Ik Umr Asar Hone Tak….., were sung by Jagjit Singh for the serial. The story of the drama series tells the viewers about the poet (Mirza Ghalib) who migrants to Delhi from Agra where he faces financial crunch. Although he initially fails to impress local poets of Delhi with his poems, however, very soon he impresses all of them with his creative, logical thought provoking poems.
Alif Laila Alif Laila is a TV Series based on the 30 stories from the Novel ‘Arabian Nights’. This series was aired on DD 2 (it was a channel of Doordarshan Network) in 1997 and afterwards on ARY Digital.
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The totals of 143 serials were shown on DD2, however, it is said that a total of 260 episodes of the series were made. It had remained well-liked by the viewers from the very first season on DD National. India Cine-goers Academy awarded Alif Laila with the ‘Most Outstanding T.V. Serial’ award. Its popularity can be estimated by the fact that many other channels also re-aired it and was dubbed in many other Foreign and Indian languages. Like BTV aired it in Bengali language. It was also telecasted in South Africa, U.K., Bangladesh, and Srilanka. Sagar Films (Pvt. Ltd.) is credited with having produced this very much liked series. It was directed by Anand Sagar, Prem Sagar and Moti Sagar. Mukesh Kalola was its creative director. The series begins in an exceptionally reasonable way when Princess Scheherazade engages Sultan Shahryar in the world of exciting tales in order to avoid any more killing of women by Sultan. In fact Sultan Shehryar’s wife had turned disloyal to him which prompted the Sultan to hate women folk. He would marry a new girl one day and behead her the next day. Vazir’s daughter Sheharzade decided to change Sultan, hence, married to him. However Sheharzade was clever enough to engage Sultan by way of narrating stories to him. At every morning the story would end at a point which aroused the Sultan’s curiosity to know what happened next, as a result, the trend of executing a bride on next morning got changed. Many popular stories from the Arabian Nights (One Thousand and One Nights) have been incorporated into the series. Be that Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp, Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves, The Seven Voyages of Sinbad the Sailor or others, all stories had to a great extent engaged viewers.
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This series is credited of entertaining each and every member of the family.
Jodha Akbar Jodha Akbar is an Indian historical drama that is being presently aired by Zee TV in India and Geo Kahani in Pakistan. The drama was launched by Zee TV on 18 June 2013 and is shown between Monday to Friday. Ekta Kapoor has produced this series under ‘Balaji Telefilms’ production House. R M Joshi, Binita Desai, Manish Paliwal, Kirtida Gautam and Mayuri Roy Chaudhary are contributing as a story and screenplay writers for the series. Santram Varma is directing this series while Shaalu is playing his role as a creative director. Rajat Tokas and Paridhi Sharma are playing the lead roles of Jalaluddin Muhammed Akbar and Rajkumari Jodha Bai in the series. It is believed that making of the series resulted from the big screen film ‘Jodhaa Akbar’ by Ashutosh Gowariker. Ekta Kapoor in an interview with the Times of India has said that she wanted to make a historical show and feels excited about the series. This serial tells about the story of political marriage that took place between Mughal emperor Akbar and Rajput princess Jodha Bai in the sixteenth century. It lets know the viewers how their marriage though a political one brought love in their lives and about the impact this marriage had on the future of India. Moreover Mughal and Rajput relation, wars of that period and the functions of the Mughal empire has been brought into fore. The Jodha Akbar serial is loved by viewers for a number of reasons and few among them are it deals with love, tells about warriors, informs how empowered the women in Mughal rule were, etc.
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Qubool Hai ‘Qubool Hai’ is presently being aired on ‘Zee TV’ in India and on ‘Geo TV’ in Pakistan. It has been produced by Gul Khan and Nissar Parvez under ‘4 Lion Films’ production house. It was almost after one decade that with this serial, Muslim oriented TV serial returned back to the TV screen. Although the idea of the producer was to target Muslim viewers in the country and abroad but the serial gained surprising fame in all the communities. In its beginning this serial was on the outstanding place as far as the TRP chart for the channel was concerned. The new content offering in the story did not take time to win hearts of viewers. The main reason behind it was that viewers were fed up with every day ‘Saas Babu’ sagas and were keen to see something new. Producer of ‘Qubool Hai’ realized the requirement of viewers and therefore, came up with unconventional and striking story. Its makers were open to reveal that the objective of their serial is to drive out misconceptions about the Muslim community as a result of Muslim culture depiction. Viewers did not take time in loving it and only after few months of its telecast the serial turned to be No. 1 of all the soap opera’s being telecasted on Zee TV. Merely 10 weeks of its telecast won for it the ‘number one serial’ tag on the Zee TV with TVR of 3.4. The serial which is a narration of the ‘family saga’ was at the start dominated by the three protagonists, Zoya, Asad and Ayaan.
Beintehaa ‘Beintehaa’ is being aired on ‘Colors TV’. It has been produced by ‘Fortune Productions’ with Farhan Salaruddin its creative director. It is being directed by Maan Sinh Minku. This serial was
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launched on December 30, 2013 replacing famous show Bigg Boss 7. It is being telecasted at 9.30 pm between Monday to Friday. It is believed that making of the serial resulted from the growing popularity of another Muslim oriented serial ‘Qubool Hai’ being telecasted on Zee TV. The story of ‘Beintehaa’ tells us about the saga of Zain and Aaliya, chasing them all the way through love, hate, marriage and particularly acquaints us about their journey of discovering each other after their marriage. If we talk about main protagonists in the serial ‘Beintehaa’, female lead Preetika Rao being featured as Aaliya and male lead Harshad Arora as Zain. Both the protagonists are performing outstandingly in the story. Preetika who is the sister of movie actress Amrita Rao made her lead role debut in television with this serial. According to a Deccan Chronicle report, she likes the serial being based on Muslim background. Harshad Arora had been in modelling previous to joining ‘Beintehaa’ as a male lead character in the serial. If we see the role of the protagonists through the prism of a story, Zain plays nicely the role modern boy who has studied in London and Aaliya of traditional Bopal girl with a good acquaintance with culture and religion.
Conclusion In fact most of the TV serials of the present time are showing the identical theme which mostly revolves around and demonstrate ‘family infighting’, however, the overview of Muslim oriented serials reflected their diversity. Muslim oriented serials have almost covered all subjects ranging from social life to demonstration of beautiful olden times of the country. No doubt TV serials like Helena, Shaheen and Khwaish are women centred
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in nature but their stories are very much exceptional. They tell about women's issues that exist in society in the present time too. They tell about the trials and tribulations of the women. They tell about the post-marriage suffering of the women folk whose wish is not considered important at the time of getting them knotted. Generally makers of the present day serials hesitate in choosing the subjects of the kind. In overview we also had a look on the historical series like The Sword of Tipu Sultan, Mirza Ghalib, Jodha Akbar and Farman. Through these serials viewers came to know about the warriors of the country like Tipu Sultan, Jalaluddin Muhammed Akbar and Rajkumari Jodha Bai. In addition to that they had a chance to know the centuries old history of the nation. Whereas The Sword of Tipu Sultan, Mirza Ghalib and Farman have been aired in 90’s, Jodha Akbar that is being presently aired is a fresh bonanza. Ekta Kapoor and ‘Balaji Telefilms’ production House deserve an applaud for its making. In the overview we also came to know about an enemy of ones solace and economy called ‘terrible circumstances’ in ‘Gul Gulshan Gulfaam’. Serials like Phir Wahi Talash, Qubool hai and Beintehaa provided unlimited entertainment to viewers by showing diverse love stories and Alif Laila was full of natural adventurers. Therefore, the discussion revealed the diversity of the Muslim oriented serials. As far as popularity among viewers is concerned, all the serials discussed in the overview were highly popular. The latest example for this is of ‘Qubool Hai’ that merely after 10 weeks of its telecast won the ‘number one serial’ tag on the Zee TV. Most of the discussed serials are award winning. The usage of Urdu language dialects and inclusion of Urdu Ghazils in most of the serials had added in their charisma.
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What makes all the serials striking is the presentation of the Muslim culture and the striking story content. Furthermore, the popularity of all the serials gives an impression that ‘there is much scope for Muslim oriented serials all the time in India’.
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